REPUBLIC, Mo. — The Russellville Cyclones struggled to stay in front of the athletic Bulldogs in last week’s 61-53 loss at Springdale. So head coach Codey Mann and his team will look for a win in Missouri as the Cyclones will play in the 47th annual Republic boys basketball tournament in Republic, Mo.

Russellville (1-1) will face the Ozark (Mo.) Tigers at 6 p.m. today. With a win, the Cyclones will return on Friday. If it loses, Russellville will be back Thursday.

“I got a tape on them,” Mann said of the Tigers. “They are a very fundamentally-sound team. They’re well-coached. They like to push the ball and from what we hear, they want to shoot it within 15 seconds every time they have the ball. They’re going to throw different kinds of pressure at you.”

The first-year coach said he has heard that Ozark is in a rebuilding year with just one returning starter — their point guard.

“He’s about a 6-foot-2 kid and he’s their best player,” the coach said. “They’ve got a 6-5 kid in the middle who was a role player last year. That’s about all we know.”

The fast pace and good point guard play can be difficult for the Cyclones as senior point guard Chris Washington still isn’t 100 percent after suffering a back injury during the summer. While he has been practicing well, Mann said Washington still has some work to do to get back to where he was before the injury.

“He’s starting to look faster out there,” Mann said. “He’s slowly but surely getting back to his old self. He really needs to find his niche in this tournament. This is a tournament where he really needs to put it together.”

Washington isn’t the only Russellville player who has been ailing, though. Senior post player Brandon George suffered a broken nose before the Hot Springs game and likely won’t see the court until Dec. 16 against Fort Smith Southside. The poor got poorer when junior Dakota Young suffered a broken wrist in the Springdale game, though Mann didn’t even know he was hurt until the next day.

The coach said he was pleased with how his team has responded to early adversity this season.

“If it was going to happen,” Mann said, “I’d want it to be happening now.”

Mann said he was disappointed in the Cyclones’ defensive effort against Springdale. Russellville allowed the Bulldogs to get into the lane with the dribble all night, leading to numerous easy buckets.

“We just didn’t stay in front of the dribble,” he said. “Our help was late sliding over. We took six charges in the game, but they shouldn’t be getting that deep where you have to take a charge every time.”

Mann added the biggest issue on offense is his teams struggles shooting the ball. But that’s just a problem with conditioning, he said.

“That’s going to come. Our legs are going to get beneath us,” he continued. “With us playing man-to-man defense and pushing the ball on offense, we’re doing things these kids aren’t really accustomed to yet. It’s going to take a little bit of time.”